Week in review: 2 world records set on opening day of Olympics

Saturday

Jul 28, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Follow the link to see this week's top national and international news.

News of the week

Here are the top news stories from the past week:

- A legally blind archer set two world records at the Olympics on Friday. Im Dong Hyun can’t see out of his right eye and has trouble with his left, but he was able to post a record-high individual score, and his team set a high-score record as well.

- “I am a joker. I’m going to load my guns and blow everybody up.” – What a Maryland man said over the phone to his employer, according to police. The man was arrested at his home, and police found more than 20 guns there. He also was wearing a T-shirt that read, “Guns don’t kill people. I do.”

- "Any day they want, the table is set. This has already been said through diplomatic channels. If they want to talk, we will talk." - Cuban President Raul Castro, talking Thursday during a Revolution Day ceremony about the United States. Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro, said Cuba will talk with the U.S. about anything as long as they’re not talked down to.

- The wife of a Chinese politician has been charged with the murder of a British businessman. Gu Kailai, who is married to Bo Xilai, a one-time popular politician, was accused of poisoning the British man because of disagreements about money and her son.

- The man accused in the Colorado theater shootings apparently sent a notebook detailing his massacre plans to his psychiatrist a week before the attacks, but the package was unopened. According to FoxNews.com, the package sat in a mailroom for about a week before it was discovered Monday. The notebook included drawings of people being shot and had other details of the attack.

- "This has been a very trying time for our family, but we are grateful and relieved that mom is back with us, safe and healthy." – Ripken family statement after Vi Ripken, the mother of baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., was found safe after being abducted. According to police, a gunman showed up at Vi Ripken’s house on Tuesday and forced her into a vehicle. An investigation into the abduction eventually led police to the house where she was being held, and she was rescued unharmed.

- Actor Sherman Hemsley, who gained fame playing George Jefferson on "The Jeffersons," died Tuesday at the age of 74, police said. Jefferson also starred as Deacon Ernest Frye on "Amen." Hemsley was found dead in his El Paso, Texas, home, according to reports.

- Searchers hoping to be able to announce the discovery of Amelia Earhart’s plane on her birthday instead announced Tuesday that they hadn’t been able to find anything. The group thought they had spotted a possible plane on old satellite photos, but "Big pieces of airplane wreckage were not immediately apparent," The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said on its website. Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 while on a round-the-world trip.

- "It seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values. The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own." - Stan Humphries of Zillow, commenting on the report Tuesday that homes values rose in the past year. Prices were up 0.2 percent from last year.

- Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to fly in space, died Monday at the age of 61. She had pancreatic cancer. Ride went to space aboard space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

- "In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable. No price the NCAA can levy will repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims.” - NCAA president Mark Emmert, talking Monday after Penn State was hit with massive sanctions because of the Sandusky child sex scandal and the fact that school officials apparently knew of the crimes but did nothing to stop Sandusky. The sanctions include a $60 million penalty, a four-year bowl ban, a five-year probation for the athletic department, a scholarship reduction and the loss of all wins since 1998. The wins change means coach Joe Paterno goes from the winningest coach in NCAA history (409) to the 12th best (298).

- James Holmes, 24, the man accused of shooting up a movie theater in Colorado on Friday, was in court Monday to hear the charges against him. Holmes appeared dazed, perhaps drugged, in court, and his hair was dyed red, which he apparently did before the shootings. Twelve people died in the attack, and 58 people were injured.

Video of the week: Daredevil skydives from 18 miles

An Austrian daredevil jumps from almost 30 kilometers above Earth in preparation for an attempt to break the world record.

GateHouse News Service

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